Peter Sharp set to join Parramatta Eels

Chris Barrett

Peter Sharp is in line to rejoin the Parramatta Eels as their recruitment manager.

A day after he walked out on the strife-torn Cronulla Sharks, where he had been interim head coach this year, it can be revealed that Sharp and the Eels have been in contact about a position on the back-room staff at a club where he was previously a right-hand man for several head coaches.

The former Manly, Northern Eagles and Hull head coach endured a tumultuous period in charge at the Sharks, reluctantly promoted from an assistant to stand in for Shane Flanagan while the latter was serving an NRL-imposed suspension over governance failures associated with the club's 2011 supplements program.

Sharp is anything but a stranger to the Eels. The highly respected coach previously worked as an assistant and defensive coach at Pirtek Stadium under first-grade coaches Brian Smith, Daniel Anderson and Stephen Kearney.

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Sharp's return to Parramatta would continue an association not only with the club but with Anderson, who is pulling the strings behind the scene as general manager of football.

His appointment would also fill the vacancy left by Peter Nolan, the recruitment guru who quit the Eels to return to Brisbane in April.

A Parramatta spokesman said on Wednesday: "We are still reviewing candidates for the role."

Sharp resigned from last-placed Cronulla on Tuesday on the back of the Sharks' sacking of playmaker Todd Carney two days earlier.

Thrust into a difficult role that he did not fully desire Sharp's job at Cronulla became virtually untenable 10 days ago when captain Paul Gallen said during a radio interview that players were not giving their all because of the impression that the caretaker coach was not giving 100 per cent himself.

Despite the resulting tension Cronulla were able to rebound from three straight scoreless defeats to pull off a miraculous come-from-behind victory against Brisbane last Friday night.

It would ultimately be the last game in charge for Sharp, who could now be set to turn his attention to identifying and luring Parramatta's stars of the future.

Meanwhile, the Eels on Wednesday confirmed that centre Jacob Loko had been granted a release to join rivals Canterbury immediately.